BIO-Europe® Digital Startup Slam Winner 2020: KyNexis Medicine Development

- Eight life sciences startups pitched virtually to an expert judging panel at the Startup Slam competition at BIO-Europe^® Digital, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Innovation

- Sweden's KyNexis, the Startup Slam winner, is developing novel therapeutics to help with cognition

- UK's ImmTune Therapies, creating cell therapy without cell manufacture, won the Audience Choice Award

MUNICH, Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EBD Group is delighted to announce that KyNexis Medicine Development was declared as the winner of yesterday's BIO-Europe® Digital 2020 Startup Slam competition. The Company's innovative approach to the discovery of novel therapeutics by targeting key enzymes in the kynurenine pathway stood out overall. Additionally, ImmTune Therapies won the Audience Choice Award for its cell therapy process that cuts out complicated bio-manufacturing processes. KyNexis's CEO, Johan Lund, and ImmTune's CEO & Co-founder, Bakul Gupta, both receive a complimentary registration to a future EBD Group event.

Eight life sciences startups virtually pitched at this popular session, sponsored and moderated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation, with complimentary pitch training provided by Scius Communications. As this year's event was held in a digital format, contestants submitted a five-minute film in advance and then had two minutes each to present, live, about their company and innovation to a jury of leading investors, pharma dealmakers, and biotech business key opinion leaders. Finalists were from the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.

This year's line-up of innovative startups included digital health, therapeutics, and medtech companies focused on developing therapies for the treatment of cancer, neuromuscular, and neurological diseases. These included: a watch to help children with ADHD focus, using Nitric Oxide to treat diseases of the respiratory system and the skin, and developing novel biomanufacturing approaches to bring cell therapy to the many.

Elena Fernandez-Kleinlein, Head of JLABS EMEA, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, said: "Championing early-stage life sciences innovation is critical to meet the healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow. We congratulate all of this year's Startup Slam finalists for their pioneering efforts aimed at potentially accelerating the development of new approaches to positively change the trajectory of health across the globe."

Simon Kerry at Advent Life Sciences, one of the five judges, said: "2020 has been a record year for raising financing in our industry, and all of the companies that presented as part of the Startup Slam represent potentially interesting opportunities. It was innovative of EBD Group to run this as a virtual event and I have enjoyed reviewing such a diverse range of businesses. It was invaluable to see the contestants' pitches in advance so that I could develop a deeper understanding of these emerging companies and their promising innovations."

The expert judging panel consisted of Advent Life Sciences' Simon Kerry, BaseLaunch's Leonildo Delgado, Johnson & Johnson Innovation's Elena Fernandez-Kleinlein, Forbion's Juliette Audet and o2h Group's Sunil Shah. The Startup Slam was moderated by Madelaine Holden from Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS.

The finalists were selected from over 50 applications, one of the largest numbers ever received by EBD Group. The Startup Slam live session was one of the most popular elements of the BIO-Europe Digital program with strong attendance. The eight short-listed life science companies that presented were as follows:

• Enable Therapeutics - Developing innovative biologics to treat rare genetic disorders of the neuromuscular system
• ImmTune Therapies – Delivering all the benefits of cell therapy, with none of the hassle
• KyNexis Medicine Development AB – Developing novel therapeutics to help with cognition
• My Personal Therapeutics - Effectively providing a massive clinical trial for each single cancer patient to give a personalized cancer drug recommendation
• Pear Bio – Providing an organ on a chip to evaluate cancer drug efficacy and end the progression of cancer
• Revibe Technologies - Manufacturing Revibe Connect, a wearable device that tracks and improves focus and attention
• SaNOtize Research and Development Corp - Utilizing the unique antimicrobial and immunomodulating properties of Nitric Oxide to treat diseases of the respiratory system and the skin.
• Wildflower Biopharma Inc. - Developing drugs targeting the spliceosome.

The films of the presentations from each of the companies can be found on the event platform, partneringONE®, here. Recordings are only available for BIO-Europe Digital registered attendees.

Previous Startup Slam winners were Eisbach Bio (Fall 2019), SunRegen Healthcare (Fall 2018), Amylon Therapeutics (Fall 2017), Peptomyc (Spring 2017), EpiAxis Therapeutics (Fall 2016) and QureTech Bio (Spring 2016).

Contact details:

Scius Communications
Katja Stout
katja@sciuscommunications.com

EBD Group
Karina Marocco
Kmarocco@ebdgroup.com  

About EBD Group

EBD Group's overriding mission is to help collaborations get started across the life sciences value chain. Our range of partnering conferences has grown to become the largest and most productive conference platform in the industry. Each one of our landmark events held in key life sciences markets around the world is powered by our state-of-the-art partnering software, partneringONE®, that enables delegates to efficiently identify and engage with new opportunities via one-to-one meetings.

Today our events (BIO-Europe®, BIO-Europe Spring®, BioPharm America™, Biotech Showcase™, China Showcase, Digital Medicine & Medtech Showcase, ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, Rare Disease Innovation and Partnering Summit, and BioEquity Europe) annually attract more than 15,000 senior life sciences executives who engage in over 50,000 one-to-one partnering meetings. These vital one-to-one engagements are the wellspring of deals that drive innovation in our industry.

EBD Group is an Informa company. For more information please visit http://www.ebdgroup.com.